The Vampire Diaries Recap: Fifty Shades Of Grayson.

Damon punches the wall of his cell until he gets some mortar loose. Pulling a bullet off the floor, he sets it in the lock and hammers on it with the mortar. The door pops open. Meanwhile, Katherine wakes up in bed and smiles as she rolls over to Stefan. Then she notices her grey hair is falling out, wraps herself in a sheet and runs out of the room. Once she gets a hat on, she runs into Damon on her way out. She gives him the gory details of her sexcapades with his brother and saunters off. Damon finds his brother and tells him that 'Dr. Creepy Ken Doll' must have Elena. They head to the university and track down Aaron. The brothers bicker about Katherine and then demand some answers.

Elena wakes up in the lab. Wes has her hooked up to tubes and runs tests. He reads out some of her father's journal entries. "Everything I'm doing to you, I learned from him," he explains. Aaron calls to say that the Salvatores are looking for Elena. Wes offers to meet them soon and then drops in on Enzo. He wakes him up with an injection and a blood bag. "You and Damon have some catching up to do," says the doctor. He returns to Elena and fills her in about her father's experiments and how Megan's parents helped fund them. Elena weaves in and out of consciousness as she recalls entering her father's lab as a child. She snaps out of it and he explains he's synthesized a new compound that will make her into a ripper who only feeds on vampires.

Aaron and the Salvatores arrive at the university. Enzo is waiting for them in a lecture hall. Damon explains how they know each other and Enzo recaps being left to die. Enzo has spent most of the past 50 years on a slab. He wanders off to get a drink. Aaron offers to get them information and leaves with Stefan. Enzo twitches. If he doesn't get back to the lab, he'll start desiccating. Damon suggests they finish Wes off for good. When they shake hands, Enzo throws him through the window. Outside, Enzo tries to attack him but the poison overwhelms him. He falls to the ground as his veins turn black. Meanwhile, Aaron leads Stefan into an office. He tries pulling a gun but Stefan throws him into the wall. Aaron explains that Damon has been killing everyone in his family and the families of all of the other scientists who were involved. He hands Stefan all of the paperwork Wes gave him.

Matt helps Katherine exercise in the woods. She falls on her face and then tries doing jumping jacks. She pants and Nadia shows up to slap her for trying to kill herself without saying goodbye. They go into the house. Nadia keeps lecturing her mom. Katherine wonders if she can be forgiven. Her daughter has an idea of how to keep her alive longer. She suggests possession but Katherine likes her body and tells her Stefan likes it to. Katherine doesn't want to die alone. Her daughter wishes she'd just killed herself and walks out. Later, Nadia sits on the patio at the Grill. She asks Matt to hold onto the traveler's knife while she is away. She says her mom will need it if she changes her mind. Nadia's not sure if she should hate her mom or be at her side when she dies. Matt knows moms can suck so he agrees to hold onto the knife.

Stefan arrives in the lab at the moment that Wes injects Elena. She manages to knee the doctor in the face. Stefan frees her and she grabs her father's journal as they go. Down the hall, Damon injects Enzo with the antidote. He shoves his fist in Enzo's stomach lectures him about shutting off his humanity. Enzo tells Damon he'll always be a monster. Damon heads home. He finds Elena reading her father's journal by the fire. She shows him the experiments he did on Megan. Damon's not impressed. He tells her how bad he is for her. Elena loves him anyway. "I'm choosing to let you go," he says. He's sick of her defending him and he can never change. After he leaves, she sobs and burns her father's journal. Upstairs, Stefan finds Katherine fussing over her wrinkles. He says they just got swept up in a moment last night and that's not enough to make him forgive her for the past 140 years. She knows he'll never look at her the way he looks at Elena. Stefan takes her hand. "Sorry that you're dying," he says. "I am too," she says as she goes. She calls her daughter and agrees to go along with her plan. Suddenly, Katherine has a heart attack and falls down the stairs. Back in the lab, Aaron finds Wes on the floor and tells him he never wants to see him again. He grabs a syringe and walks out.

Cryptic commentary: Is this really the end of Katherine? I actually thought she and Stefan were cute. Is this the end of Damon and Elena? Probably not, but they should both see some other people for awhile. It's not clear just how much of the medicine Dr. Wes manages to squeeze into Elena. It's even less clear what Aaron is planning to do now that he's on the loose with a needle. This episode was a bit of a let down for a mid-season cliffhanger. It felt a bit too low key.